Many electronic apparatus have a large number of functions and are capable of storing many different types of information. For example a mobile cellular phone typically has several different communications functions including making a telephone call, SMS messages, MMS messages, Bluetooth messaging and internet access, as well as other functions such as camera functions, a music player and calendar functions. The phone is also able to store information relating to each of these functions for example, contact information, received and sent messages, digital images captured by the camera and audio files.
Typically a user can access the various functions of the apparatus via a menu or a list of options. However as the number of functions of the apparatus increases and more information is stored on the device the number of options stored in the menu also increases which makes the menu more complicated and laborious to navigate.
Also if a user wishes to access more than one function or piece of information to complete a task they may need to navigate through more than one menu. for example if a user wishes to send an SMS message to a number stored in their contact information they may first have to navigate through a menu to access the SMS message function and then navigate through a list of contact information to access the required contact details or vice versa, they may first have to access the contact details and then navigate through a menu to the SMS message function.
Many apparatus provide shortcuts to certain functions which enable a user to access to certain functions more quickly. However the number of shortcuts which can be provided is limited by the user input device of the apparatus.
It would be beneficial to provide an apparatus which enables a user to quickly access a large range of functions of the apparatus.